Barry Graham's Blog, page 108

Yesterday morning, I reread T.S. Eliot’s early collection of essays, The Sacred Wood.

Although Eliot is by far my favorite English language poet, I had somehow missed the existence of this book until Daishin got it for me as a Christmas present a year ago. In that year, I’ve read it a few times. Although in his preface he half-disowns the essays as being immature (he wrote them between the ages of 29 and 32, and was an old man of 40 when he added the preface), these pieces are some...

On the floor, naked,
by the Christmas tree -
Christmas is coming
and so are we.

The last few days, I’ve been reading Kawabata’s Palm-of-the-Hand Stories in the cold and dark of the Portland pre-dawn. These very short, sad, beautiful stories give me a feeling of melancholy joy that I can’t articulate in words - but, in Kawabata’s writing, is found in the spaces between the words and the lines, between sound and silence.

I’ve seen a lot of commentary about James Kelman’s complaint that, despite all his literary awards and critical acclaim, he doesn’t make as much money as he thinks his genius deserves.

What I haven’t seen is a suggestion of what can be done for authors whose books few people want to read but who are loved by critics. If they are entitled to more money than their work sells for, who should decide who gets how much money, and who is to provide the money? Government instit...

Media accounts of the execution of Richard Stokley in Arizona made the procedure sound quite jolly. Stokley’s attorney, Dale Baich, was present, and in this piece he describes what actually happened.

For an account of my own experience of witnessing executions, and of my friendship with Dale Baich (which was originally published in Flaunt in 2008 and won a FOLIO silver medal for best single article), click here.

New book covers.

For more about these books and others, click here.

In my post yesterday, I questioned the effectiveness of “gun control.” I want to be clear that I am not advocating for the easy availability of guns; rather, I am suggesting that talk of “meaningful action” (Obama’s words) tends to be talismanic, magical thinking.

What would “meaningful action” be? How would “gun control” be implemented? What can be done about the more than 200 million guns in the U.S.? About the lobbying power of the Natio...

There are no words that fit, but you have to say something. The link above is to what I wrote after the Aurora theater shooting four months ago. I have nothing to add to it.

Dalkey Archive publishes some great books, but I won’t be buying any more books that they publish, unless I buy used copies so that Dalkey Archive doesn’t get any money from me. Why? Because I’m not a scab, and I hope you aren’t either, and so I hope you’ll join me in the boycott.

Why? Because of this job ad they posted:

December 11, 2012

Dalkey Archive Press has begun the process of succession from the founder and current publisher, John O’Brien, to a publish...